A young mother calls for help not to die
His life comes at a price. Last summer, fate befell a family from Rouvroy, Belgium. Marilyn, 32 years old and mother of three, saw her life turn upside down when she learned that she had breast cancer. At first reassuring, the diagnoses of doctors have become increasingly worrying facts. The worst news fell next, when the young woman detected that conventional treatments were not working.
Marilyn and her family’s descent into hell began on July 17, when the thirty-something “felt a lump” in her chest. Between clinical examinations and ultrasounds, hope lasted until the end of September, before the first diagnosis of a “benign tumor” was erased after a first operation by another observation, much more serious: a cancer without metastasis but “triple negative”.
“A median overall survival of around 14 months”
Marilyn chained the results until the end of November, in vain. A new ultrasound revealed the presence of a 4 cm tumor. “Apart from giving me the side effects, starting it did not act on my cancer,” laments the young mother before starting a series of chemo at the beginning of December.
“Triple negative” cancer cases affect only 15% of patients, and present “a median overall survival of around 14 months and a 5-year survival rate of 11.3%”, according to the transparency commission of the High Authority for Health (HAS). The specialists consulted by Marilyn advised her to test an experimental drug, the Keytruda. This treatment, which does not yet benefit from marketing authorization, has still received a
early access decision on behalf of HAS last November “with regard to the benefit drawn in overall survival compared to the only one”.
Except that, in Marilyn’s case, access to this treatment is very expensive since it is not supported in Belgium, where the family lives. “This drug is not reimbursed to me. It comes back to me more or less at 3,500 euros per dose, at the rate of one dose every 15 days, ”she explains. To finance the drug and find some hope, the young woman appealed for help in the form an online jackpot. Of the 35,000 euros needed, it has already collected nearly 25,000 euros in donations. A generosity that could allow this mother to forget her greatest fear: not to see her grandiose children.